Neighbors fed up with direction mix-up

Frances Haynes keeps a special container next to the front door of her Welcome home. It's a box filled with photocopies of handwritten directions to the Lexington Business Center.

BY NASH DUNNThe Dispatch

WELCOME | Frances Haynes keeps a special container next to the front door of her Welcome home. It's a box filled with little sheets of paper — photocopies of handwritten directions to the Lexington Business Center about 11 miles away.In recent years, she's given out handfuls of the copies to lost transfer truck drivers who end up at her home, which sits at the corner of Welcome-Bethesda Road and Lexington Avenue. Haynes said the drivers, who pull in as early as 3 a.m., are all destined for the business center located on a similarly named street, Lexington Parkway, off of Interstate 85 Business Loop just north of Linwood."They always have no clue where they are," Haynes said.While it's not entirely clear what is pointing the drivers to the wrong place, Haynes said GPS systems are what usually lead them to Lexington Avenue instead of Lexington Parkway. Haynes and other neighbors say the recurring mix-ups are not just bothersome but involve safety and property encroachment issues. The trucks have a hard time backing up and turning around on the road, Haynes said, adding that one truck struck a small house about a year ago.Sandra Witherspoon, who owns Storm Electric Co. at the end of Lexington Avenue, said the drivers often try to use her property to turn around. In the process, they have snapped wiring on the company's property, hit guttering on the side of the business and driven large ruts into the ground, she said."We had a sign up that said, 'No big trucks,' but that didn't work," Witherspoon said.Lexington Avenue is a fairly narrow street that is less than one-quarter of a mile long. While there is a small gravel path that leads out to Old U.S. Highway 52 at the end of the street, only the paved portion is considered a state-maintained road, said Mark Crook, a maintenance engineer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation.After taking several neighbors' complaints last year, the DOT did place a "Dead End" sign at the entrance to Lexington Avenue in an attempt to slow trucker traffic. Crook said there has also been a request recently to put a weight-limit posting on the road, which could be enforced through state law. That request is still under consideration, he said."It's sort of a catch-22," Crook said. "It's a public road available for anyone to drive on. I have no way of helping these truckers find out this is not the road."Davidson County government occasionally updates mapping for companies that produce systems that rely on GPS coordinates. However, there are certain brands that don't come to the county to seek updates, said Scott Leonard, a planner with the Davidson County Planning Department.After noticing that some of the same drivers for the same companies were making the mistake, Haynes also contacted companies in the business center to notify them of what was happening. However, she said she had a hard time getting in touch with anyone.Calls to two companies at the business center were not returned as of press time Thursday.If the problem continues, neighbors do have the option of changing the name of the street. Leonard said if 51 percent of the property owners petition for a road name change and agree upon a new name, that request would be taken up in a public hearing and brought before the Davidson County Board of Commissioners for approval. The citizens would have to pay the appropriate legal advertisements, Leonard said.In the meantime, Haynes said she will keep her box of directions close by."It used to be an everyday occurrence, and then the economy slowed down," Haynes said. "But you can tell the economy is picking back up lately."Nash Dunn can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 227, or at nash.dunn@the-dispatch.com. Follow Nash on Twitter: @LexDispatchNash